The Hard Sayings: Matthew 19:29

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

This article is part of a series explaining the sayings of Jesus that are hard to understand from a list put together by Lord's Library. To see their list of these verses, go to this page.

This verse is the end of Jesus’s response when Peter asked him what the apostles would get for “leaving” everything to follow him. This conversation takes place not long before Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for his final days. Jesus starts his answer (Matthew19:28) by addressing Peter’s specific question about what happens to the twelve apostles, saying that they will get twelve thrones and judge the tribes of Israel. Then, Jesus goes on to the statement of Matthew 19:29 that includes everyone.

NIV: And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Leave

In English, the word “leave” is relatively simple. It means “going away from,” or “departing” from a person or thing.

However, the Greek word is one of those “multiple meaning” words whose sense largely depends on its context (see this article). These meanings include "to let fall," “to let drop,” "to send away," “to dedicate,” "give up," "hand over," "to let loose," "to set free," "to leave alone," "to pass by," and "to permit." When referring to people, it often means “to send away.” When referring to things, it often means “get rid of.” This is also the word that the New Testament translats as “forgive.” It means “to permit” when we “let drop” some rule by not enforcing it.

The Greek primarily means “let go” or “let drop,” having the sense of putting things behind us. In listing all the things that are being “dropped,” Jesus is changing the meaning of this verb with each word. A “house” is not only a building in Greek, but a relationship with a family which we might “give up.” This verb is used commonly with brothers (and perhaps sisters) to mean “forgive” as in letting a grievance drop. With a “wife” it can mean “divorce” (one meaning of its noun form) in the sense of “dropping her.” Jesus could have meant “send away” when referring to people but not referring to a “house” or a “field.”

There is also a problem with thinking this word generally means “get rid of.” Jesus cannot mean “dropping” these relationships entirely. This is important because many of these relationships (“children,” “parents” “wives”) are moral obligations. Jesus has just finished talking about the moral obligation we have to stay with our spouses. And in this same section, he talked about honoring our parents.

So, what does “let drop” mean in this context? It means that we have let these people and things “drop” in their emotional importance in our lives. Where these relationships “drop” is in our priorities. They are still priorities but not as high. We get confused when Jesus talks about preferences because the Greek language is more about relative value than English ia. We see a similar idea in verses like Luke 14:20 from an earlier article:

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